Years of waiting for Kumbh Mela

The holy festival of kumbh fair is the sacred celebration of India. In Indian language, Sanskrit ‘Kumbha’ means ‘pitcher or kalesha’. It is also a zodiac sign in Indian astrology for Aquarius, the sign under which the festival celebrates. The Kumbh fair occurs four times every twelve years and rotate among four locations. So the festival comes in every 3 years and it celebrates in 4 different cities of India. The cities for the Kumbh fair are Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. A Hindu ritual says that the Kumbh Mela has the power to wash away the sins of a person, who participate in it with full faith. It frees him from the cycle of birth-rebirth.
Special features of the fair
The assembling of Indian saints, priest and yogis from all corner of India is one of speciality of the fair. We will see an amazing gathering of different group of saints in this occasion. If we know something about these saints we can recognize them. The identification of Naga Sadhu’s is that, they never wear clothes and the body full smeared with ash. Their body doesn’t affect with extreme hot and cold. The other noting marks of these sadhus’s are the long mattered hairs. Urdhwavahurs, the sadhu’s who believe in putting the body through severe austerities. Besides them we will see the Parivajakas, they have taken a vow of silence and meditate for hours standing their heads. Kapilvasis are the other special category of saints. We see them in the entire month of Kumbh on the banks of Ganga, meditating, performing rituals and bathing thrice a day.
The special gathering comes because the Kumbh festival and the ritual bath at the banks of the river is most important for the Indians. Millions of devotees take part in this fair. Other special feature of the fair is the religious discussion, devotional singing, and mass feeding of holy men, women and the poor.

The story behind Kumbh Mela
The story of Kumbh Mela is interconnected with the popular creation of myth and the Hindu theories on evolution. The story starts with the creation of earth. In that time Gods were very weak due to their curse. To regain the strength, they find one solution. With the granting of Lord Brahma, the creator of universe, they decided to churn the Ocean, where they can find Amrit, divine nectar, which can make them powerful and almighty. But there arise another problem. The churning of ocean is not as easy as they think. At last they made an agreement with demons or Asuras. If they help Gods in churning; half of the nectar will share with them. The demons agreed for the deal.
They used Mandara Mountains as the mining rod and Vasuki, the heavenly Serpant body as the rope to move the mountain. The churning process continues upto 1000 years. In the middle of it the Mandara Mountain began to sink, understanding the situation Lord Vishnu took the shape of a tortoise and sat under the mountain providing it a basic support.
After 1000 years of churning, many mythological things start to come out of the ocean. The things included, ‘Lakshmi’ ,the goddess of prosperity and wealth, ‘Sura’, the goddess of wine, ‘Chandra(moon)’, ‘Apsara’, the celestial nymphs, ‘Kaustabha’, the previous gem of Vishnu, ‘Uchchaishravam’, the divine horse, ‘Parijata’, the wishing coral tree, ‘Kamdhenu’, the wish fulfilling divine cow, and ‘ Dhanvantri’ ‘Nimi’and ‘Bharadwaj’, the physician and surgeons. As soon as Amrita came out with Dhanwantri, was seized by God, and they ran away. Demons felt cheated by Gods. This led to a battle between Gods and demons, and it continued to 12 days and nights. In an endeavour to keep the nectar from falling in the hands of the demons, the demigods hid it in four places on the earth, Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nasik. At each of the hiding places, a drop of immortal nectar spilled from the port and landed on the earth. These places are then believed to have acquired mystical power and that is why the Kumbh Mela held here for every 12 years.
Astrological influence
Kumbh Mela celebrates, when the planet of Brihaspati (Jupiter) moves into the zodiac sign of Aquarius or kumbha and the sun enters Aries. Each sites celebration dates are calculated in advance according to the special combination of zodiacal positions of Sun, Moon and Jupiter. It is believed that because of this astrological influence, the water of Ganga gets positive charge by the electromagnetic radiation of the Sun, Moon and the Jupiter. The flux of this energy is also various, in accordance with the position and phase of the Sun and Moon. Spiritually we can say that this position of planet is good for concentration and meditation, and the bathing in Ganga transfers a positive energy in the inner self of the devotee and purifies his mind.
The last record of Kumbh Mela shows that 70 millions of people from all over the world participate in this festival. The Ardh Kumbh Mela celebrates every six years at Haridwar and Allahabad, the venue Haridwar is considered as very holy, because Ganga enters plain from mountains first here itself. The Purna (complete) Kumbh Mela always takes place at Allahabad on every twelve years. The years of waiting for the Kumbh mela is getting reduced. The next Kumbh mela is near to us be prepared your mind and adjust time to celebrate a vacation in this holy group. The nearest Kumbh mela in Haridwar is due in 2010AD.